Parade going the authoritarian route

SPOTLIGHT CHINESE FESTIVITIES

September 30, 2009|By Barbara Demick, Tribune Newspapers

BEIJING -- This is a parade that demands state-level security. Discipline. Extreme secrecy.

Ordinary people will not be allowed anywhere near the parade route in Beijing this Thursday, when the Chinese Peoples Republic marks the 60th anniversary of its 1949 founding with a military parade. That applies even to people who live in the neighborhood: Entire apartment buildings along the route toward Tiananmen Square are being evacuated to prevent residents from watching.

As the city prepares for the parade, Beijing feels less the dynamic capital that wowed the world during the 2008 Summer Olympics than a city under martial law.

The more than 80,000 students marching in the parade have been forced to sign secrecy agreements that prohibit them from talking to journalists, sending text messages or posting blogs or photographs.

Supermarkets have been ordered not to sell sharp knives. Pigeon fanciers have been told to keep their birds grounded. Even kite-flying has been banned.

"Are we having fun?" demanded a sarcastic Li Datong, a retired editor from the China Youth Daily who is one of the few who has spoken out publicly against the parade. "Does this look like a country at peace?"